on his collection but still has
some of the most beautiful
taipans one could ever see.
Thanks to the kindness of
Michael O’Brien, we spent the
next day at Hartley’s Crocodile
Adventures. After a coffee with
Michael, we started with a boat
tour of the naturalistic crocodile
lagoon - I believe this to be one
of the best ways to show tourists
crocodiles in their natural state.
The skipper, Matt Summerville,
gave a very informative commen-
tary, and then to top it off we had
a further boat tour for just the two
3.
4.
of us, thanks to Greg Watson who
has worked at Hartley’s for many
years. Greg also took us on a tour
of the new reptile house, and Bill,
another keeper, arranged for us to
get a close up of the beautiful
Komodo Dragon, a gentle giant
who had no objection to being
handled.
I had been thinking about asking
after my young mate Brodie, who I
met in the Territory, as he had
said he was heading to Hartley’s
for a full-time job, but he came
looking for me having heard I
would be at the park. Brodie took
us behind the scenes and I got to
feed Zack, a four-and-a-half-metre
saltie, and handle a small alligator.
We watched Brodie feed the
alligators and were then given a
tour of the off-display reptile area.
The final part of the day was spent
watching Greg’s snake show
which was informative, humorous
and very entertaining.
Michael had taken many photos
and when we returned to his home
he went through them while I
admired the magnificent tropical
garden that he and Rose have